.....Clement Briggs is known to have been apprenticed to Samuel Lathame, tanner, in London. In a deposition made in 1638,(1) he said that 22 years earlier he lived with Lathame on Bermondsey St. (which was and still is in London’s leather district) and discussed with Thomas Harlow the number of pelts their "master’s pulled" in a week.(2)
.....Clement sailed on the ship Fortune, the second ship to arrive at Plymouth Colony, which landed near what is now Provincetown on 11 November 1621. He received an acre of land at Plymouth Plantation when the first lots were cast in 1623. He was in the company of John Howland for the division of livestock grants (1627). Perhaps it was in Plymouth that he was fined 10 shillings for entertaining "Indians" without permission of the court. About 1631 he moved to Weymouth, MA, perhaps, as it has been suggested, for better tanning bark. His removal is mentioned in a letter between the governors of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies.(3) He kept ownership of his home in Plymouth, which he later willed to his son Thomas. Clement was granted the heifer "Raghorne" when it arrived on the ship Jacob. His marriage is known only from a court record that states that Rev. Thomas Stoughton was fined 5 lbs. on 1 February 1630/31 for marrying Clement and Joan Allen. Joan was brought to court for being alone in the presence of Arthur Warren. Clement gave a 10 lb. bond to assure her appearance.(4) The following June Joan was ordered to stay away from Warren.
.....Clement was granted more land at Plymouth: 4 acres adjoining his own land on the Jones River in 1637(5) and another acre in 1639.(6) His first grant or purchase at Weymouth was 10 acres in the "easter neck" about 1643 and 2 acres on the neck at the ferry. He was once charged with extortion, but the case was dismissed.
.....Clement died before his children were adults. On their behalf Phineas Pratt and Elder Bates petitioned for land to be given to the children as their right as "other purchasers or old comers." His second wife may have been among a squadron that salvaged usable parts of whales at Southhampton, LI.
children of Clement and Joan (Allen) Briggs:
i. Thomas b. 14 June 1633
ii. Jonathan b. 14 June 1635
iii. John
children of Clement and Elizabeth Briggs:
iv. David b. 23 August 1640
v. Clement b. 1 January 1642-3
vi. Remember m. Mary
